Find me
by Leaf.On.The.Wind.08
Summary: After "What They Become", Skye turns to Ward for help.


_Deep inside, she had known she was going to leave S.H.I.E.L.D. the minute she had learnt about her father. That discussion in vault D. She just hadn't realised it yet. But standing in this improbable room, Trip's shirt in her clenched fist, dust all over her feet, an unknown energy rising up inside of her, it hits her. She has to go. She isn't safe here.  
She has to find him._

So much has happened in so little time. It was not one hour ago that she tried to kill him, wanted to kill him, and somehow couldn't. It was not one hour ago that she said that word for the first time in her life, _dad_. Not one hour ago that she felt they were her family, not one hour ago that she learnt they took her mom; and her new instincts are telling her to run.  
She's still standing where it happened. She's holding Trip's shirt in her left hand with no memories of collecting it from the ground. Raina is standing in front of her, looking different, but somehow looking like she had always imagined her. With a malicious smile, and without saying a word, she disappears.  
She's still standing where it happened. She can hear Coulson's screams on the other side of the wall. He's calling out for her, calling out for Trip. She wants to scream back but only to make him stop. She can't stand the sound of his voice right now. She can't stand the memories and conflicting feelings it brings.  
She has to go.  
Suddenly the earth starts moving, but it doesn't come as a surprise. She closes her eyes and starts running. Without understanding what happened, she's out in the open. She can feel the world collapsing behind her but she doesn't look back.  
She has to find him.

They're far from the place where all hells broke loose when they feel the earthquake. Agent 33 is driving the car they borrowed from a fellow citizen and Ward is clutching his side, trying to stop the bleeding. His heart stops for a second and he has to convince himself that she's ok, she can take care of herself; she kind of showed him that when she shot him earlier. Weirdly enough, this thought makes him smile. He had been afraid she'd become too much of a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and lost her identity in her new training, but now he knows she has only improved; she is more herself than she has ever been.  
They don't stop until they get to the Hydra safe house out of town. He almost faints when he steps out of the car and luckily, Agent 33 is here to catch him.  
"What's your name?" he asks, unable to stand the thought of not knowing the name of the person currently saving his life.  
"Agent 33."  
"No, you're real name?"  
She looks at him, with the same lost look she had when she realised Whitehall had been hit.  
"I don't know?"  
It's more of a question than a statement.  
"You'll come up with something," he answers, and the pain in his stomach stops the chitchatting.  
Once they get inside, he lies on the living-room couch while she takes care of his wounds. She looks determined and for some reason, it makes him feel safe enough to pass out.

She hadn't thought this through, had she? How on earth is she going to find him? He knows how to stay hidden. He's _superspy_. He won't be found if he doesn't want to be found.  
So she has to make him want to be found. She has to send him a message. He talked about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s old frequencies in the bus, which are those again? Would he check them again? It's the only thing she's got. She thinks she remembers them, hopes she remembers them properly.  
She walks until she finds a cybercafé and works her magic. She only sends two words; she knows he doesn't need more. She then travels hundreds of miles with several strangers, and settles in a small hotel in a quiet village. She lies awake at night, thinking about her message over and over again. Hoping she hasn't been too late, that he still want to be reached. That he'll still be there for her. That he'll do what she asked of him.  
_Find me_.

It's a couple of days before he's able to move without wincing. But they need to get moving. They were able to catch a break, with Hydra reorganizing itself and S.H.I.E.L.D. probably dealing with the aftermaths of the obelisk's explosion, but now they have to move.  
When he reaches for his phone, he sees a notification he hadn't notice before. It's that app he had made to track Raina, to receive the old radio waves. But they took the tracker from Raina, so what could it be receiving? He touches the icon and the app opens, showing him a two-words message.  
"Change of plans," he tells Agent 33 who just entered the room. "We're going to find Skye."

She chooses new coordinates at random, a place and time, a rendez-vous map. The night before she leaves, she hacks into the owner's computer and sends a second encrypted message. She has no doubt he'll crack the encryption in minutes but her doubts that he will even receive the message are growing fast.  
But what choice does she have? Two days have passed and she has never felt more certain of her running from S.H.I.E.L.D. She has been experiencing new consequences of whatever went down with the obelisk. She knows what it makes her. And she knows how S.H.I.E.L.D. deals with what she has become. She's not ready to face that yet.  
She packs her bag and leaves; she has somewhere to be.

Is it fate? Her random coordinates lead her to a diner not that different from the one she tried to turn him in. She sits in the back and this time, with no computer to keep herself busy, she just plays with the sugar bags like she used to do, and waits. She's on her third coffee when he sits in front of her.  
"I got your message."  
She looks up and the earth starts shaking when she meets his eyes. He catches the table, looking distraught, but it only lasts a second.  
"Sorry about that."  
He looks at her without understanding.  
"Sorry about what?"  
She doesn't know how to explain what she doesn't understand. But she doesn't need too; he is a quick thinker.  
"Was that you?" he asks, and adds, whispering: "the earth…?"  
"Well, I think so."  
He doesn't ask any more questions, he knows it's not the right time. For a while, none of them say anything.  
But he has to know.  
"Is this a trap, Skye?"  
The offended look she casts him makes him think it's not.  
"You can't be mad at me for asking. Last time I saw you, you were with S.H.I.E.L.D. and you shot me, _four times_. The only reason I'm alive is because all of your bullets didn't reach me. I'm not mad, he adds, when he sees her starting to look worried. We both did things…"  
"Something happened to me. Down there. With the obelisk. Something's changed… I've changed."  
He senses she's not done talking yet, so he just waits. She finishes her coffee and sighs heavily. He almost takes her hand to help appease her, but he knows it's too soon. So he just waits.  
In the meantime, he knows they've been on location for too long already. The chances that their communications have been intercepted by S.H.I.E.L.D. are very high, and even if the encryption was a hard one to crack, they might be there soon.  
But he'll give her all the time she needs. They can deal with reinforcements when they come. Agent 33 is out there and he will know as soon as S.H.I.E.L.D. is, too.  
"I can't go back. I didn't know what to do. Who to call."  
Their eyes meet again and the fire in hers almost frightens him. He always knew there was a tempest raging in that fragile looking girl and he has a feeling he'll be meeting her soon.  
"So I called you."  
She looks at him and she's suddenly a mix of the strong woman who shot him not long ago, and the rookie she was when they first met.  
"I don't know what to do."  
He doesn't either, but he is very good at not showing it.  
"Come with us," he says, and she flinches at the "us".  
"I'm with Agent 33," he adds.  
"She helped me after... And she needs help, too."  
Guilt is filling her and she doesn't ask more. She doesn't even understand why he came. She shot him.  
She shot to kill.  
"Skye, we're good," he tells her.  
She's worrying so loudly that he can almost hear her thoughts.  
"We'll get through this. Then we'll see what happens."  
He is both surprised and worried that S.H.I.E.L.D. hasn't showed up yet so he gets up and leaves the diner quickly, Skye following him.

They spend three weeks on the run. Three weeks sleeping in a different location every night, moving all day, trying to figure out a plan. She manages to send a message to Jemma, let her know she's ok, she hopes it will be enough to get S.H.I.E.L.D. off her back. But she is afraid it won't; she has become a gifted and she knows what happens to people like her.  
Being around him is not easy, but it's not as hard as she expected. He has changed so much; they both have. He is not the same man who betrayed and kidnaped her, and she is not the same woman who would follow Coulson and S.H.I.E.L.D. to her death. They're both learning about her powers, because she's discovering them more each day and she cannot deal with the changes alone. He has become his SO again.  
Every evening, they sit together around a glass of scotch and she tells him about all the new things she is experiencing. All the changes happening inside of her. He listens, tries to understand. He teaches her calming techniques to try and control some of the effects.  
They slowly learn how interact with each other again. What to say, how to say it. Which issues they can't talk about; yet. How to move around one another.  
They slowly get to know who the other has become.  
They slowly get to know who they have become themselves.

At night, the nightmares wake her up. Memories of her father, blurred images of her mother, and she wakes up drenched in sweat, shaking. Crying.  
He can hear her, every night. It's torture for him. He lays awake, doesn't dare to go to sleep, he needs to make sure she's ok. But he can't go and check on her; they've grown closer, but they're not that close yet. So he lays in bed, worried, his heart clenching everytime he hears her moan, tremble or cry.

They hit a couple of rough days when the new leader of Hydra finds their location and send men after them. It's a hard fight, but with the help of Skye's new powers, the three of them manage to escape and find refuge in one of Garrett's old cabins, the existence of which is known only by Ward. Skye has become better at controlling her powers by now, but the exhaustion from the fight makes her pass out as soon as they are inside and safe.  
Ward carefully lies her down on the couch. There's only one room, which makes the cabin more intimate than any other safe houses they have shared until now. He takes a chair and sits next to her, while Agent 33 settles on an armchair, in a corner, looking at them quietly.  
"You care about her."  
She isn't much of a talker, so her comment takes Ward by surprise.  
"I do."  
"She cares about you, too."  
"I doubt that. She might need me for now… But as soon as she's found her way, she'll go back to them. She might not trust S.H.I.E.L.D. right now, but they are her family."  
"Family are the ones who are here for you when you can't be here for yourself. They're the ones who look for you when you're in trouble. Not the people you go to when you're ok again."  
He turns to look at her. In that moment, she might be wearing part of her face, but she looks nothing like May.  
"When did you get so wise?"  
"Not knowing who you are… Reinventing yourself allows you to chose who you want to be. I'm just trying to be a better person."  
He doesn't answer, but he knows exactly what she is talking about.  
"You taught me that," she adds, before they settle into a comfortable silence.

Skye wakes up shaking again, only to find a blanket on her shoulders and a sleeping Ward sitting on a chair next to her. She's thirsty so she gets up to go to the kitchen part of the cabin, doing her best not to wake anyone up. Agent 33 is sound asleep, but Ward is a light sleeper and he wakes up as soon as she turns the faucet on. He groans and she turns to him, an apologizing smile on her face. He gets up, stretches, and comes to join her in that corner of the cabin.  
"You ok?" he asks, pouring a glass for himself.  
She nods, still drinking, and leans on the counter.  
"I've had better days," she replies. "But at least we got out alive."  
"Thanks to you."  
"Thanks to the three of us. We make a weird… team."  
She hadn't thought of that word to describe their on-the-run trio before, but she has to admit that's what they've become. A team. A brainwashed hydra agent without a leader to follow, a wild card who is done following the rules, and a newborn inhuman with powers she is just starting to understand. "Team" might not be the proper word to describe them, but it feels right to her.  
"We do," he says, smiling at her choice of word.  
They stay silent for a while, before Skye feels the need to go back to sleep, still exhausted from the chaos she created earlier today. She walks back to the couch while Ward stays in the kitchen. His sore back doesn't want him to go back to that uncomfortable chair.  
"Come," whispers Skye.  
He looks at her with question marks in his eyes, and she answers them by tapping the seat next to hers. He walks towards her and sits on the edge of the couch, keeping some distance between them.  
She is the one who comes closer.  
She is the one who takes his hand, the one who puts his arm around her shoulders.  
She rests her head on his chest and almost immediately falls asleep again. For the first time since she has changed, she sleeps without the nightmares.

They wake up to the smell of coffee and canned beans. Agent 33 is cooking breakfast, and she looks at them when she hears them move, but doesn't say anything.  
Ward doesn't know what to do. Skye feels so warm against him. For a second he is convinced that he has found his place; he belongs there, his arms around her, her head on his chest. But their past soon comes back to his mind and he tries to let her go; only to have her grabbing his shirt.  
"Ward…" she whispers, still sleepy.  
She puts her hand on his stomach, creating butterflies, and looks up at him.  
"Thank you."

Later that day, Ward decides to go hunting for food. It's really just an excuse to get away and find some peace of mind to think things through, but Skye is glad he is going because the lack of privacy forced on them by the small cabin is driving her crazy.  
She thinks back to when she was at the Playground. When he was their prisoner. The man she has learnt to know is so different from the man she thought she knew back then. He is strong, focused, driven; honest. He makes her feel safe, something she has never experienced before. Last night… She can't help but smile when she thinks about it. Her conscience tells her she should feel guilty, she shouldn't even be here, she should have gone back to S.H.I.E.L.D. a long time ago. But the smile on her face and the feeling in her chest… She feels free. And it's not just about Ward. The secrets surrounding her origins have been lifted, all the mysteries, all the uncertainties… The only unknown left is her future, and she is ok with that.  
She must be smiling like an idiot while pouring herself a cup of coffee for Agent 33 –'the quiet one', as she has nicknamed her in her mind- to initiate a conversation.  
"You look happy."  
"I do?" she replies, and it's half a question, half a statement.  
"You didn't have nightmares last night."  
So she had noticed.  
"I didn't."  
"You look better."  
"I guess I am."  
She sits in front of Agent 33, with the cup of coffee warming up her hands, and none of them talk for a while.  
"Why did you leave with Ward?" Skye finally asks, the question having been on her mind since they left the diner.  
"I didn't know where to go. I had seen him work before, he seemed… He seemed like the right person to help me, in my position."  
"Did he? Help?"  
"More than he thinks. He shared his story with me… And seeing him now, it gives me hope."  
Skye hesitates for a moment, before asking her.  
"How bad was it?"  
Agent 33 looks at her, not sure how to interpret the question.  
"His life," Skye adds.  
"Pretty messed up."  
They don't say anything for a while, each lost in their own thoughts.  
"Thanks for taking care of him," Skye says after a while.  
"Well, next time you don't _really_ want to kill him," replies Agent 33 with a kind smile, "just miss, it will be easier to clean up."

Skye is sitting on the porch when Ward comes back. He stops when he sees her, still not really sure how he should react around her. But her smile gives him hope, and he comes to sit next to her.  
"Successful hunt?" she asks, and he nods in return.  
She touches his face with her hand and turns it towards her, so he has no choice but to look her in the eyes; just like that time in Providence.  
None of them talk, though, as if they didn't know where to start, what to say; what can be said.  
So she puts her lips on his, her hand still on his face. For a second, the surprise keeps him from reacting, before he lets go of his inhibitions, his fear of hurting her, his shame of what he has done; and gives in to her kiss. They kiss softly at first, before their exhaustion, their despair, their hunger for comfort and for lust, make them cling passionately to one another. They only stop when the earth starts to move under them.  
Skye takes Ward's hand in hers, as if she never wanted to let him go.  
"You didn't have to come looking for me. Why did you?"  
"You asked."  
She leans her head on his shoulder and he puts an arm around her.  
"We'll be ok?" she asks, and suddenly she is his rookie again.  
"We will."  
He kisses her gently on the forehead, and looks in the distance. He has never been more sure of anything. They _will_ be ok.  
Now that they have found each other.


End file.
